Love that you'll never lose
by Loving yesterday
Summary: Three SOLDIERs. Two stories. One love all the same. For how long can they keep it hidden, before jealousy breaks loose? Please ignore my failed attempt at being romantic.


**Hello! Here's my first FF VII fic.**

**It was a Christmas present for my best friend Xescay, who has been the most amazing person in the world for me. **

**And yes, she's a yaoi fangirl.**

**I do not own Final Fantasy or Square Enix because otherwise, why would I kill off all my favorite characters?**

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><p>Genesis stood in front of his desk, staring out the window. To any outsider, he would've looked as if he were merely admiring the view. But he was staring down at a certain someone.<p>

His black spiked hair was gelled up in odd angles that somehow fit his face. His blue eyes sparkled with an unbridled excitement as he relentlessly attacked the blonde in front of him. Genesis noted the way the SHINRA uniform fitted his frame perfectly. The broad sword that he wielded was a memento from his mentor, Genesis's best friend Angeal.

He smiled as the blonde boy faltered under the attack and stumbled back, almost tripping over his own feet and the man closed in for the "kill."

Genesis felt a smile creep onto his face as the boy's sword was knocked out of his hands and it slid across the floor. He reached to grab it, but the sharp point of a sword stopped his path. He glared at his black haired friend who laughed at the expression and pulled him up.

"It's no fair Zack." The boy complained, pouting in an almost childish way. "How am I supposed to improve if you don't give me a chance to fight."

Zack laughed again, causing an all too familiar feeling to soar in his heart.

"And maybe that's what I like about you Cloud." Zack joked, ruffling his spiky blond hair. "You're such an whiney emo."

Cloud was quick to react, his long limbs trying to remove the sturdier ones from messing up his hair but the damage was already done. That warm feeling disappeared from inside Genesis, replaced by a cold unexplainable malice for Cloud.

Everything about the boy spoke naivety, from his platinum blonde hair to his larkspur eyes that were the envy of many. Maybe it was his looks that caused Zack to decide to mentor him. Or maybe it was the immediate connection that he apparently felt around the slight blonde. Whatever the reason was, he had what he'd like to refer as an unexplainable hate towards him.

Genesis chuckled at his own thoughts. How innocent, of course there was a reason to his hate. The fact that this newbie could get so close to Zack so effortlessly when Genesis struggled to form a sentence around him. The fact Zack always picked him to accompany him on missions, regardless of the difficulty. He was the envy of the new recruits but who would've ever thought first class SOLDIER Genesis would be jealous.

A gentle humming in his coat broke him from his thoughts. Genesis casually flipped the sleek handheld device and read the text message. A smirk formed on his lips and he corrected himself. He would soon be an EX SOLDIER if all things went to plan.

He cast one last look out the window. At the black haired man ,who caused him so much heartache yet he was the only one who could make him feel any warmth at all since Angeal, and the blonde boy with everything he always wanted.

Genesis resisted the urge to take a step back as he saw those indifferent blue orbs stare at him. Their gaze locked for a moment before Geneis turned around and broke the stare. Broke it before he was tempted to run his rapier through him for being so oblivious that he was holding his whole world in his hands.

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><p>Cloud shook his head from the stare that Genesis had given him and tuned back into Zack's ramble on how newbies didn't get enough opportunities to prove themselves. He spoke of bringing up the topic to Genesis but Cloud shot down the idea immediately.<p>

General Genesis was revered among the other SOLDIERs as the iceberg of SHINRA. He was callous, cruel and unforgiving. His ginger hair gave a false impression of warmth that Genesis didn't seem to know the meaning of.

There was another reason for the distance he kept between him and Zack's friend. He felt unusual around him to say the least. A feeling formed inside him, whenever he smiled around Zack and quoted a line of LOVELESS, it made Cloud wish that he would address him instead of his mentor.

Something he'd never admit was that he had chosen Genesis as his soldier. When entering SHINRA, all recruits were told to chose one SOLDIER that they thought was the perfect SOLDIER. They were then told to learn about them and then whenever they were in a bad situation, they had to think, what would their soldier do if they here.

Many thought it was Zack, which only added fuel to the fire of jealousy because Cloud is mentored by his SOLDIER. Only on his death bed would he ever admit that he had chosen the red head as his. He was always attracted to him, even if before it was only of admiration. But now that feeling distracted him to the point when Zack would wave his hand in front of his face and he was still transfixed on the general.

A sharp clicking sound brought Cloud back to reality and Zack laughed as his student jumped back a little.

"For crying out loud Cloud," Zack teased, smiling at the alto common frown that appeared on the blond's face. "you'll be killed before you become a SOLDIER first class if you keep zoning out."

Cloud folded his arms over his chest and glared at his mentor.

"At least I don't get hyped put during missions." He retorted and Zack's face went dark red.

"That time in Nibleheim doesn't count." He muttered and Cloud let a small smile creep onto his face at Zack's embarrassment.

"Come on," Cloud teased gently. "you didn't think I would let you being drunk really be forgotten without any teasing?"

Zack nodded gullibly and Cloud's smile widened a little. He opened his mouth to speak again when a recruit wearing a helmet came up to them. The recruit passed a piece of paper to Zack and ran off, but not before glaring at Cloud in jealousy. Cloud was about to sigh when he heard the crinkle of paper. He glanced over at Zack who had scrunched up the paper. His face was dark and tense.

"What's the matter?" Cloud prodded gently, slightly afraid at the look on the black head's face. Zack tilted his head upwards and looked Cloud. "Genesis has left SHINRA."

Zack ran towards the head's office, not caring that his student was having trouble keeping up with his speed. He threw open the door and slammed the piece of paper onto the desk.

"What is the meaning of this?"

The black leather chair behind the wooden desk turned around slowly. Zack immediately knew that this wasn't the normal head.

The well built man he had always known was replaced with a slight woman with trailing silver hair. Her ice blue eyes were cold as she regarded the disgruntled SOLDIER in front of her.

"It's as the paper says, General Genesis has deserted SHINRA. Your job is to track him down in the sewers and bring him back dead or alive."

Zack ran a hand through his hair in distress.

"That's not what I meant! Genesis is our best tactician and one of the best fighters! He wouldn't just leave us like that!"

The woman sighed theatrically as if she was dealing with a little child.

"Genesis is a traitor. I was told that you were our best Zack. If you don't think you can kill-"

Zack then lost it.

"Who ever said anything about killing him! I'm bringing him back!"

The woman sighed again sinking back deeper into her chair.

"I don't care what you do with him. Just make sure he doesn't give away any of our secrets."

Zack calmed down at these words and motioned for Cloud to come closer.

"Lets go."

"You can't honestly be thinking of taking a freshman for this mission?"

The woman protested and Zack felt something inside him flare up.

"He's an excellent SOLDIER!"

The lady shook her head.

"He's still a child in the industry."

"He's had plenty of experience!"

"Grab a first class SOLDIER like yourself and get out of my sight!"

"Then find another SOLDIER for this job." Zack retorted, his eyes burning with hate.

He wished the old head would return, the woman was already getting on his nerves and he hadn't known her for over ten minutes. The woman waved her hand in consent and Zack smiled triumphantly.

As they walked out of the office, Zack smiled at Cloud. He never got tired of the boy. After being on a few missions with the whiney emo, Zack was sure he would be glad to ditch him on someone else but in the end, he had decided to train him. He wasn't sure what had made him hang onto Cloud but over the months, Zack started to realize.

It was the way his eyes looked when the sun shone on them, it was the way he hardly smiled and was so serious when they were around others. It was the way he was polite and tactical in battle yet somehow always lost to Zack's brute strength.

Zack was sure that he loved the boy more than anything he had ever loved before. Sometimes he thought it would be better if maybe he had just ignored his gut feeling and left the feelings behind but every time Cloud smiled at him, or made that rare joke, Zack knew he would give it up a hundred times over.

Gesturing at a helicopter in the yard, Zack and Cloud boarded the vehicle. He pointed to the pilot in the general direction but it seemed he already had received orders and they silently rose into the air.

As they entered the sewers in which Genesis was supposed to have escaped in. Zack smiled one last time at the boy before ordering him to split up to cover more ground.

As he watched the blonde disappear into the darkness, he let out a sigh as an uncontrollable shiver ran down his spine. Something in his mind told him to follow Cloud but he shook it off. The boy had already once caused him to follow his gut, he wasn't going to let him win again.

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><p>Cloud ran through the sewer, grateful for the boots being waterproof, the underground disposal system was a lot more complex than he had imagined. There were several rooms branching off at various interval and probably all of them had electricity. Coupled with the maze of the sewer, it was the perfect base.<p>

His eyes fell on the tunnel straight ahead and an idea hit him, straight ahead was the command room which controlled the flow of the sewerage. Forcing his legs to move faster, he rammed open the door to the control room.

His larkspur eyes widened in surprise as he saw Genesis tampering with the computers. The room was large and vast, paneled with steel plates along with the wall. The far end of the room was lined with monitors and keypads. Otherwise the room was ominously empty.

Genesis slowly turned around and Cloud felt that all too familiar pang but he couldn't be sure that it wasn't one of fear. The look on the red head's face was dark and mysterious. A half smirk played across his features and the shadows seemed to dance across his features.

Working up the courage, Cloud willed his voice to be calm.

"General!" He yelled, unable to keep the slight tremor from his voice. "I'm so glad I found you! The substitue head was just about to call for your betrayal. Come on! Let's-"

He abruptly stopped as he saw Genesis point his rapier at him. Cloud eyed the red steel and the sharp glint nervously and Genesis smiled eerily at the look.

"Obviously, if I run away, I'm a traitor. So now that you have that figured out, what do you think I'm going to do?"

Cloud answered instinctively like a child to a teacher.

"You're going to kill me aren't you?" He replied softly, the shake returning to him. "Because I know your plan and you can't afford that."

Much to Cloud's surprise, Genesis chuckled.

"Good guess but it isn't that simple." Genesis played with his rapier, tossing the blade from his left hand to right.

"You have Zack and I just can't accept that."

Suddenly Genesis charged at him rapier in hand. Cloud instinctively pulled out his short sword and parried the glowing red blade at the last moment out of pure instinct. He was still in shock over what he just heard. He loves Zack, Cloud thought, his brain unable to grasp the words. Somewhere deep inside, something in Cloud's heart broke. A clang of metal brought him back to his senses.

Struggling against the pressure, Cloud tried to pull back but in the end, he only just succeeded in turning the deadly blade away.

"Why Genesis!" Cloud yelled, his voice breaking at the coldness in the eyes of the person he admired.

"You, me and Zack! We're all friends!"

Genesis chuckled for a minute at the remark and Cloud felt something in his heart sink.

"Friends?" Genesis said, questioningly for a moment before moving in.

His blows were quick, precise and of a far higher caliber than Cloud could manage. Soon, his short sword was thrown away and Cloud stared at the red blade aimed directly at his chest.

He looked at Genesis eyes one more time, hoping to find them full of that warmth that always appeared around Zack only to find them hard and unforgiving. Genesis opened his mouth to finish his sentence.

"Maybe me and Zack," He began.

He casually ran his gloved hand over the crimson rapier and it sprung to life, glowing with an aura that danced viciously around the sword.

"But you and I were never friends."

With that, Genesis drove the blade into Cloud's heart, the blade easily cutting through the flesh and bone before appearing on the other side. It went further still, sliding through the steel wall before finally stopping as the silver hilt hit Cloud's chest.

Surprisingly, Genesis saw Cloud smile at the comment, a small trickle of blood making it's way down his face.

"True, we may have never been friends," He murmured softly.

"But you were my SOLDIER and I have always loved you."

Genesis stumbled back in surprise, his hands falling away from the sword. He glanced back at Cloud, willing him to say something else. But one look at the boy and Genesis knew without a doubt that he had joined the life stream.

Suddenly the door burst open. Genesis spun around and saw Zack staring at the him. As his eyes flickered to the body of Cloud, some kind of madness overcame him. He charged at Genesis, yelling from the top of his lungs. Genesis smiled warmly, almost imitating the one Cloud had given him. Quoting slowly, he found a passage of a poem stuck on his lips. Not one from LOVELESS, but one he had written.

Hero or villain

God or devil

No one can help love

And all the havoc it wrecks

For only one can

Enjoy the amount of death

This heartless sport brings

And that one

Is the one we want to help the least

The last line left his lips as he felt the sharp point of the buster sword dig into his chest. He fell backwards onto the floor, the blood seeping out of the wound.

Zack fell to his knees, clutching the handle of the sword tightly. Genesis felt a tear drip from Zack's face and onto his.

"Why?" He managed to get out in between the silent sobs. "I loved him."

Genesis tried to chuckle but the wound hurt too much. So he settled for telling Zack the truth.

"Then I guess this hero loves you."

Zack's eyes widened in horror at what he had just done and Genesis smiled. He closed his eyes and felt a part of him tugged along to join what he knew was the endless circle of life.

Zack left SHINRA after that mission and gone around the world. He became an author and wrote books that were famous for the heart wrenching love that was torn apart by fate or stolen by another. Whenever asked if he had ever had his love stolen, he would only laugh and reply in a distant voice.

"No, for they are always in my heart. And no one can ever hurt them there."

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><p><strong>So, Did you like?<strong>

**Yes, I am aware my shounen ai skills are far below par. **

**And the SOLDIER thingy with the picking comes from the British SAS training Regime. **

**And GenGen doesn't get a lot of time in this thing I know. But he's such an amusing person to keep in the mystery. (Adds to his appeal as well.)**

**Anyway, Review or Genesis gets it!(Actually I can't otherwise Ruby will hang me. So you're safe for now.)**


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